disappearing act

Sorry I have been MIA for quite awhile. 

Troy and I actually planned a little getaway awhile back and we just got back from......VEGAS!!!

We had a great time, but are now both nursing colds.  Must be the change in weather....or all the germs on the plane.

This trip I decided not to take my camera, which I am totally regretting now.  I just didn't want to carry it around everywhere while I was there.

We headed out to Red Rock Canyon, which by the way is THE most beautiful place I have ever seen.  It is soooo quiet and peaceful out there.  We love the drive out there and the drive through the canyons.

(not sure who to give credit to for the great photo...found it online)

While we were there we saw these cute little scooters.

I only wish we would have seen them BEFORE we went through the canyon and we definitely would have taken these on the tour instead of our car.  If anyone is going out there I would highly suggest it.  They looked like a ton of fun!  

We did the usual walking through some casinos, losing some money, eating In-n-Out Burgers, eating at the Rio Village Buffet (which was delicious), and of course some shopping.

Then, on our last night there we did something that we have wanted to do on our last 15 trips to Vegas.  We finally took the plunge and bought tickets to go see Cirque du Soleil Mystere.  It was AMAZING!!!!!!  If you question going to see a Cirque show, you know, is it worth the money?  It totally is!  Troy is not into shows at all and he seemed to be pretty amazed by it.  I would suggest however not sitting in the front.  Always sit up in the back, because there is so much going on throughout the show to look at.  If we would have been in the front few rows we would have constantly been looking up, which is what the guy told us when we bought the tickets.  Also, as a little side note, unless you are a very willing participant, DO NOT SIT IN THE FRONT ROW!  You just may get picked on a little.  

Anyways, this show was so good.  The next one on my list is O at the Bellagio.  I think these tickets only run about $200 per person, which explains why I haven't been to that one yet.

Mystere is actually the first Cirque Du Soleil show that was brought to Las Vegas.  So my suggestion is to go to this one first if you are going to start seeing these shows.  I have heard that once you have see Ka or Love you will be disappointed in this one.  But this was our first experience and Love wasn't available for the night we wanted to go, so we picked this one and it did not disappoint for me.  Those people must love their job!  It looked like so much fun!

We just got back yesterday and I'm working on catching up on laundry and cleaning.  Pretty exciting for my weekend, huh?  That's alright, it is always good to be home.  I missed Khloe soooo much.  If only we weren't sick, I would have a little more energy to run around after her.  Thankfully before I left we stopped by our old babysitters who was selling a bunch of her daycare stuff and I got tons of paints, colors, and new toys for Khloe to play with.  So she is staying plenty entertained, while we rest a bit!

lots of thoughts

Tomorrow is my open house at my new salon!  I'm really excited and hope to have a good turnout.  I'm headed to the salon bright and early to blow up over 50 balloons (hopefully they all get used).  Everyone that comes gets to pick a balloon for a % off their purchase.  Should be fun...unless I get tired of hearing balloons popping! :)

We haven't really been up to much else around here lately.  I have been checking the realtor websites about 5 times a day and haven't found really any house that interests us.  I'm starting to worry just a little bit about Khloe's birthday.  I have some really big plans for the party this year and am a little worried where all the decorations are going to go....as well as where all the people are going to sit!  I have a few more months, hopefully some great house will come up that we just can't resist.

I did manage to pick Khloe out a cute little outfit for her fall pictures this year.  I can't wait to get it on her and start snapping!  I miss my camera!  I feel like I haven't picked it up in months.  Now we just have to wait for the leaves to change. 


I've been a really really lazy blogger lately, only because I have some exciting plans coming up that I have been doing a lot of work on at night.  This has been about a 6 months in the making and I'm excited that the reveal is getting close!  By the first of November everyone will get a peek at what I've been working on!  I can't wait!  Trust me....if everything goes well it will make up for my lack of blogging!  At least I think so! :)

the return of dancing

Just saw the new cast for Dancing with the Stars.  Is that show dying?  I think the only three I care to even see how they do are Bristol Palin, Jenifer Grey (can you believe she is 50?), and Audrina Patridge. 

David Hasselhoff??????  YUCK!!! (sorry if anyone is a fan)

Not much else new here.  We got our basement back in order (somewhat) after the carpet got laid.  My scrapbook table is up and ready for me to start working!  Can't wait!  Hopefully I will start being productive here in the next couple weeks.

I have been reading a lot the past few days.  I finished Mockingjay.  The final book in the Hunger Games trilogy.  Very disappointing!  The first two books were soooo good.  

I also just started The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.  It is going to be a tough one for me because it says to only read 1 chapter a day.  I think a chapter is like 3 or 4 pages.  It is supposed to be a 40 day book.  It is a little hard to stop after each chapter, but I'm following the rules.  Let me know if any of you have read it.

We have been taking lots of trips to the parks and Khloe has been riding her trike everyday...a lot!  

We started a new daycare.  It has been a challenge to say the least.  I'm not sure if Khloe is happy there or not.  I told her we would give it a few more weeks and see how things go.  She doesn't cry when I take her, so that is a good sign, but she just says she doesn't like it.  I really think she just misses her old daycare and is adjusting to a new schedule and new rules...as am I.  Different.

I have an open house coming up soon at the new salon (wonder how long I can call it new?) so I have been spending a lot of time planning things for that and believe it or not I have already been thinking about my Christmas open house.  I think it is really going to sneak up on me this year.

jumpin

My big girl doing a little jumpin

And all by herself

time to play

There was brand new playground equipment installed at one of the schools in our area.  As soon as it was safe to go on we headed over.  I'm not kidding when I say it is about as tall as the school.

Khloe had a blast on the swing.  I think that was her favorite part.

On the very top level that are little fishbowl type things that you can actually climb out into and look out.  Kinda scary for a 2 year old if you ask me, but Khloe climbed right out there.

Trying out one of the slides.  I told her she had to go down by herself after I got a terrible slide burn on my arm after going down the biggest slide with her on my lap.  

Dangerous.

sunshine

Ahhh 

I'm sitting on my couch pretending the mess around me doesn't exist.  Khloe is all cozy-ed in taking a nap next to me.  The fans are on, the doors and windows are open and the sun is shining.  It doesn't get much better than this.  Fall is right around the corner....I can almost feel it!  I can't wait!  I can't wait to get my camera out and start taking fall pictures of Khloe.  I can't wait to get to the apple orchard and start making applesauce and apple crisp for in the freezer.  I can't wait to start wearing jeans again.  I love fall!

Back in the real world.....

Khloe has to start a new daycare tomorrow.  I am a ball of nerves.  I hated starting at the first daycare, and although this may not be as bad, it is still a transition and I know it is not going to go well the first few days.  She is thisclose to not really having to wear a pull-up anymore and I'm worried that this new transition is going to set us back.  I'm worried that she is going to think I just dropped her off at some strange place and left her.  Anxiety.  I know it will all be fine and after a few weeks she will love it, but I sure do hate it right now.

We headed to the lake this past weekend with a couple of our friends.  It was great to get away with no kids.  Our friend drove the boat while Troy and I went tubing together.  Let me tell you I have never had a ride like that before!  Troy and I were holding on for our lives.  I am paying for it today.  My butt, arms, legs and about any other muscle in my body that can possibly hurt, does.  But we had a blast and I would do it all over again.  I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.  I thought I was going to throw up at one point because I just couldn't catch my breath from laughing.  I forget sometimes what it is like to go out as adults and have fun.  We really don't get a sitter...ever.  It's a good reminder to take more time for ourselves to have some fun.

new salon

I realized today that I have never posted pictures of the finished salon.  So here you go!

I'm sure I haven't mentioned this yet....but don't I have the most amazing husband, really?  I love my new place to work!  I really kind of get excited to go to work everyday.  I also get excited to go home at the end of the day and leave my work at work.  

We still have a few more things to do.  I need a reception desk to go under the pendant lights and we need to hang some pictures and shelves.  I also just have a little bit of touch up paint work to do.  Little things that can be done at anytime!

thoughts

Today I am thinking....

I love my job and the people I get to spend time with

I love that Troy cleaned out the basement just so Khloe could ride her trike downstairs because it is a mosquito infested, hot, humid day (at least the basement is good for something now)

I love that Khloe is asking me all night to marry her (she has been watching Shrek 2)

I love Ace of Cakes

I love that I have great babysitters to watch my child while I work

I love that the weekend is thisclose and I get to go to the lake

I love when people leave nice comments on my blog...it is nice to feel loved

I love that fall is just around the corner and I finally feel like I will be able to get back to blogging, scrapbooking, and taking pictures

Random thoughts, I know, but I thought it was high time I had a positive blog post instead of a negative one

my life

Life?  

Where are you?  

I want you back!

Really what the heck is going on?  So after my last post about how were were trying to get settled.  Friday morning brought about even more changes.  Troy called me at my salon around 9:30 and said our basement in the duplex was taking on water.  He told me to come home and that we had to start clearing stuff out of the basement.  Excuse me?  You mean ALL of the stuff that we had JUST moved into the basement?  UNREAL!  So I get home and start moving everything upstairs.  I will just say one thing about our upstairs:  You can't hardly move there is so much stuff.  

So lets see.  Now we have an upstairs that you can't move in and a downstairs that is unusable.  Oh let me just add a stinky downstairs that is unusable.  We are still trying to dry up water down there.  I can only image what our electrical bill will be this month!  So we spent ALL weekend cleaning our basement and sucking up water. 

Did I forget to mention that Friday we were supposed to take off at 1:00 just the three of us for a little time together?  So I called the sitter trying to hold back tears and told her that she had to keep Khloe longer.  I went to pick Khloe up and my sitter gave me her two weeks notice.  WHAT????  I seriously just kept laughing when she told me, because I knew that if I stopped laughing I would start bawling.  So I made it out to the car and put Khloe in her car seat and the waterworks started and the floodgates opened.  

So we are practically homeless and daycare-less and I just opened a new salon that I can't even get up to work at.  Which leads me to ask:  Is this really my life?  I just keep reminding myself that we are all healthy, we have beds to sleep in and food on the table.  I just have to keep repeating that to myself.  It is slowly working. 

So I am PRAYING for normalcy this week.  I'm PRAYING that nothing happens this weekend that prevents us from spending a little time as a family.  I'm PRAYING that I can actually put in a full week of work without interruptions.